We've all heard of the scams on Craigslist with phony sellers scamming consumers with fake ads for items and homes. However, today a consumer called our office saying their identity had been stolen from Craigslist and used for setting up scams elsewhere. The consumer had posted an ad trying to sell an item and the scam artist had taken their information and used it as an alias to scam FedEx and at least 1 other company.

This is a bit of a twist from the usual pattern of Craigslist behavior, but one that makes sense if you put too much information online. It can be frustrating sometimes searching on Craigslist only to have an e-mail address as the only way to contact a seller, but people do this in order to keep scammers from gathering too much information about them. Yes it does draw a fine line between trust and confidentiality, but it's just as important for buyers to be careful on online classifieds as it is sellers.

If you have been a victim of a scam on Craigslist, eBay or any other online classified, contact your BBB immediately.